Crest Theatre

Housed in the restored 1925 Delray High School building, the Crest Theatre was dedicated in 1993 as the performing arts center of Old School Square. Originally the high school auditorium, the Crest Theatre was re-designed as a charming, 323-seat, state-of-the-art facility combining the original high school color (blue) with warm burgundy and gold accents. The original stage was only 12 feet deep; therefore two stories of additional space were added during restoration to provide backstage, dressing room and storage areas. The original proscenium remains an important historic feature of the theater. The Crest provides a truly intimate entertainment experience.

The Main Stage Series (November-April) offers professional theater, music and dance as well as national tours, comedy, and unique variety shows. The Broadway Cabaret Series (January-April) features Broadway’s hottest stars. The Lecture Series (January-April) features notable speakers from around the country and a wide variety of topics.

The Crest also serves as an important venue for other organizations, schools and community groups to present their own productions and presentations. Surrounding the theatre are nine beautifully restored classrooms which now serve as meeting, workshop, reception and class space.

Shonagh Adelman is a contemporary feminist artist who combines different mediums in one image. Using materials she is drawn to, her art creates cultural commentaries on different issues. Her work includes the use of crystals, and Adleman uses a crystal method which deploys thousands of colored 4mm glass and acrylic crystals on canvas. She then embeds other media – including plasticine, tablets, photographs, and plastic eyeballs – within the crystal surface. The result is an illuminated and exaggerated image. Adelman has work in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and of the National Museum for Women in the Arts. She has also been exhibited at SFMOMA, The Aldrich Museum, Fuller Museum, Linda Kirkland Gallery, as well as others.

Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.) creates “an overwhelming desire to believe in the transformative power of art.” Using brilliant colors that create psychedelic patterns, floral imagery, and materials such as crystals and porcupine quills, the work he creates is a combination of science, spirituality, and mysticism. The end result is an otherworldly effect for the viewer. Alvarez began his career through performances in which he “channelled” a 2,000 year old Shaman spirit named Carlos. His has performed in front of live audiences around the world, and media broadcasts of these performances have also been viewed worldwide. The video work was presented in 2002 at the Whitney Biennial, and has also been shown in a solo exhibition at The Kitchen in New York. Alvarez is internationally known, and his artwork has been shown at Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, at Art Basel in Miami Beach, and at shows in New York and in San Francisco.

Michael Chearney grew up in Baltimore and learned to paint from his immigrant grandparents. They inspired him to look at the world creatively, and to color outside the lines. Chearney has stated that “art is a living thing, and that the process involves mind, body, and spirit.” His paintings have impressionistic overtones, and each one speaks a different message. In 2013, Chearney was recognized as ATOD Magazine’s Male Artist of the Year. Exhibitions include Red Dot Miami, the Palm Springs Fine Art Show, INCOGNITO 2013 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and solo shows at the George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles. His work has been in nationwide group exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami.

Ben Eine is a street artist from the U.K., who was propelled into the limelight when Prime Minister David Cameron gave Barack Obama a screen print of his work to congratulate the President on his second inauguration. Eine is most noted for his bright alphabet letters that are found on shop shutters throughout London’s Shoreditch, Brick Lane, and Broadway Market areas. Although best known for his street art, Eine also does screen prints. The mixed media that Eine uses for his creations includes spray paint, acrylic, and glitter on canvas. Google Maps has created a map of Eine’s street art throughout London. His art can also be found throughout the streets of Tokyo, Dublin, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, and Stockholm. His work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and throughout Europe, including V1 in Copenhagen and Collette in Paris.

Bruce Helander is a prominent artist who specializes in collage and assemblage. He has had quite an interesting career. Aside from his art, he is also a prominent writer who has written extensively about contemporary art. Helander possesses a Master’s Degree in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, where he was Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. He arrived in Palm Beach by way of NYC in 1982, and has been active in the South Florida art scene ever since. His work is in over 50 museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and most recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. His collages also appear in the magazines Jazziz, The New Yorker, Palm Beach Illustrated, as well as others.

Damien Hirst is a prominent artist from the United Kingdom, who uses installation, sculpture, painting, and drawing to explore the complex relationship between art, life, and death. Often exploring more macabre aspects, his work is certainly unique and shows the connection death has to us all. The conversation he has sparked with his works is controversial, but needs to be explored. Early in his career, Hirst was one of the main organizers of a group exhibition called Freeze at Goldsmiths College. This exhibit launched not only Hirst’s career, but also the careers of other British artists. In the 1990’s, Hirst created his most famous series, Natural History. This series features preserving animals in steel and glass tanks filled with formaldehyde, with the most well-known being a Tiger Shark, whose body is slowly decaying due to the formaldehyde solution. Hirst’s intriguing works have been exhibited in over 90 solo shows worldwide, and have also been included in over 260 group shows. In 2012, Hirst was recognized with a retrospective at the Tate Modern for his contribution to British art over the last two and a half decades.

Camomile Hixon is a pop artist whose main medium is glitter. Based out of New York City, Hixon’s works include pop images and words on canvas that sparkle with glitter, three-dimensional supersized cellophane flower installations, as well as the worldwide interactive Missing Unicorn search. Her work has been exhibited in Lyman Allyn Art Museum, The American Textile History Museum, The Children’s Museum of The Arts in SoHo, and in Central Park, NYC. She is also internationally acclaimed, and her work has been exhibited in Europe and Japan.

Frank Hyder is a painter, formerly from Philadelphia, but now living in Miami. He was a member of the faculty at Moore College of Art and Design, and his career highlights include more than 150 group shows and over 80 solo exhibitions. He has exhibited worldwide, throughout the continental US, Canada, Great Britain, South America, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Melbourne, Australia. Much of Hyder’s work is influenced by his experience living in Venezuela with his family. His work is vibrant and moves across the canvas in bright colors. Aside from paintings, Hyder’s works include sculptures, luminaries, ceramics, and landscapes, among others. Hyder’s major awards include a Senior Fulbright Research Grant to Venezuela, U.S. Embassy Cultural Grants, Mid Atlantic NEA, two Pennsylvania State Council of the Arts Grants and an International Art Programming Network Partners Grant.

Ashley Longshore has said that her art is representative of the world as she sees it, and she has been recognized as “a modern Andy Warhol.” Her art focuses on American consumerism, pop culture, and Hollywood glamour. Longshore’s work often takes a satirical approach, using fashion icons as the means to make a statement. Her client base includes Blake Lively, Salma Hayek, and Penelope Cruz. Her gallery, Longshore Studio Gallery, is located on Magazine Street in New Orleans. She has exhibited in the US and Europe, and has been featured in such magazines as Elle, Forbes, Vogue, Marie Claire Belgium, Elle Décor Belgium, Vie Magazine, SPUR, Hollywood Reporter, and Matchbook Magazine.

Alberto Murillo is a native of Madrid, Spain, and self-taught artist. His work is influenced by Abstract Expressionism. He uses acrylic and UV polymer resin that is poured into panels in a color blocking effect, with the canvases lying on the floor as opposed to on an easel. Murillo describes this process as creating liquid skins that are able to be manipulated in order to create his vibrant works. Murillo’s artwork has been exhibited in over 30 shows across the US and Europe, and is currently represented by seven galleries in the US. He is also featured in over 40 private collections and in several public art installations.

Allie Pohl is an LA-based conceptual artist. She has exhibited at the Orlando Museum of Art, Context Miami, Dallas Art Fair, The Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Denver International Airport, and a public sculpture show curated by Olga Viso, in which she won the People’s Choice Award. On her Twitter profile, Allie Pohl has written “Transforming the social construct of perfection,” and indeed, her art showcases this statement. Pohl has created the Ideal Woman by digitally enhancing Barbie to fit the ideal Western society measurements of 36-24-26, and is shown in a range of media, including sculpture, video, and jewelry. Her work challenges the meaning of perfection and creates a need to embrace imperfection. Aside from Ideal Woman, Pohl’s work includes Hot Seat, which glimpses into a woman’s most personal of moments, as well as Peacocking, which is influenced by the dating app Tinder and emphasizes the transformation of the ideal male.

Jonathan Stein is a conceptual artist from the Bronx whose expertise includes sculpture, painting, installation, photography, and video installation. His work makes social statements all the while sparkling with hand-placed Swarovski Crystals. His influences include Andy Warhol, Judith Leiber, and John Waters, and he says of himself, “I am a lover of all things campy and kitsch.” Stein is also involved in philanthropic efforts that aid in helping pediatric cancer patients. He has worked with Katy Perry and the Gibson Guitar Company, among others, and he serves as the Creative Director of Drops of Hope, Inc., a South Florida non-profit organization that provides specialized services to pediatric cancer patients and their low to no income families. In 2003, Stein received Best Commercial Photography Portfolio from The Art Institute in Fort Lauderdale. His work has appeared in numerous publications and has been exhibited in group shows and solo shows, both across the U.S. and internationally in Latin America and Europe. For the past eight years, Stein’s work has been shown at Art Basel, Miami Beach.

Raul Vega’s specialty is textured canvases, using a pallet knife and numerous brushes to apply a rich mixture of layered paints. His landscapes have been said to capture the essence of nature’s harmony and color balance. The colors and textures of his work reinforce nature’s beauty and inspiration. Vega’s aggressively textured surfaces and purposeful abstract patterns “created by nature and manipulated by man” create a unique balance between the abstract and reality. Vega’s art has been exhibited in a series of artists’ surveys, in Palm Beach at the Paul Fisher Gallery, “Art at the Whitney” in West Palm Beach, Bluestone Gallery in Milford, PA, and ArtHouse429 in Palm Beach. His work has also been acquired by the Coral Springs Museum of Art and the Schacknow Museum of Fine Arts.

Hilary White has spent the majority of her career in Philadelphia. She loves wood work, and has incorporated this love into three dimensional painted sculpture, and installation. She has described her work as an “exploration of theology and imagination.” White is influenced by the early art of the Byzantine era through the early Gothic era when works were commissioned for religious purposes, and also by the 19th century when the movement turned to Art for the sake of Art. Her work reflects the combination of faith and fact. White has participated in various art fairs, and has been in over 36 exhibitions, including nine solo exhibitions. Her work has been shown locally and internationally in Berlin and Hong Kong.

Rob Wynne creates mixed-media objects, installations, drawings, and canvases. His work uses glass, beads, silk, and glitter to create surreal and ephemeral environments. Wynne also uses text to create narratives on his pieces, which are embroidered over images, formed of glass, and painted onto objects. The chosen phrases on his pieces come from literature, television, and conversations. Removed from their context, these phrases become their own art form. Solo gallery exhibitions include JGM Galerie in Paris, Galerie Edward Mitterand in Geneva, and Holly Solomon Gallery in New York. Group exhibitions include Gavlak Gallery in Palm Beach, the McNay Art Museum in Texas, P.S.1 Institute for Contemporary Art in New York, Long Beach Museum of Art in California, The Drawing Center in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Wynne is also featured in collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Centre Pompidou, the Norton Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

Russell Young is best known for his silk screen paintings which are sprinkled with diamond or crystal dust. His work explores where the American Dream intersects with crime, addiction, and death. Young has said that he uses the diamond dust to lure viewers in, to seduce them to look closer at the image underneath the sparkle. His work uses historical images and images of American pop culture. Young began his career as a photographer, and he shot the cover of George Michael’s Faith album. He has photographed such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen, Bjork, Paul Newman, and Diana Ross, and he has shot over 100 videos for MTV. Young also does charity work for The Art of Elysium, an organization that brings artists in to spend time with hospitalized children who are battling serious medical conditions. He is very passionate about this work, and believes in giving to this community. Young has been exhibited throughout the world, including in London, Vienna, Montreal, Los Angeles, Belgium, and San Francisco. His fan base includes Brad Pitt, President Obama, Kate Moss, Elizabeth Taylor, and numerous other celebrities, all of whom own pieces of his work.

Time

March 24 (Tuesday) 10:00 am - July 5 (Sunday) 4:30 pm

Location

Cornell Museum of Art

51 N. Swinton Ave. Delray Beach, Florida 33444

Event Details

Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; closed Monday and major holidays; admission is a suggested $5 donation.
Adornment: A Faculty Showcase, is designed as a smaller companion exhibit to Bling: Art That Shines. [...]

Event Details

Adornment: A Faculty Showcase, is designed as a smaller companion exhibit to Bling: Art That Shines. This group show features paintings and photography by Carla Golembe, Manny Jomok, Patricia Maguire, Bob Neiman, Ralph Papa, Robert Schwartzman and Vicki Siegel. The artists, who are all instructors at the Center’s School of Creative Arts, were given the theme of “adornment” (something that decorates or is an ornament) to interpret in their works.

Time

March 30 (Monday) 9:30 am - November 2 (Monday) 4:30 pm

Location

Crest Theatre Galleries

51 N. Swinton Avenue

Event Details

This multi media exhibit showcases drawings, paintings, collage, mixed media and photography by adult and youth students enrolled in the School of Creative Arts.
The exhibit is located on the second [...]

Event Details

This multi media exhibit showcases drawings, paintings, collage, mixed media and photography by adult and youth students enrolled in the School of Creative Arts.

The exhibit is located on the second floor of the Crest Theatre building. Exhibit hours are Monday-Friday, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm and Saturday mornings when classes are in session.

To make a donation, click on the button below or you can always stop by our administrative office or mail your donation to: Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach 33444. Thanks so much for your support!

Volunteer

Delray Beach Center for the Arts has a variety of volunteer oportunities. Click here to find out more.